Originally Posted by
catahoulafriend
Thank you for your feedback, jsloan. For some context, my situation with PPs may be unique: because my int travel schedule is somewhat flexible, I can book flights that usually have upgrade space. I've never had PPs left over at the end of the year. Actually, this year I ran out of PPs and had to use miles + cash to secure Polaris upgrades the past two months. From this standpoint, I see saving 40 PP as a value roughly equal to a single-leg upgrade: $350-450 and the standard miles deducted (~20-30k). This is why I’m inclined to pay the $750 more for the RT W fare, hoping (begging) the PP upgrades clears on both legs.
To your point about the travel days, outbound is 29 Jan (Thursday), which shows at the moment: J/JN/C/D/Z/ZN/P = 9, and PN/PZ/IN = 0. The return is 7 Feb (Saturday), and shows the same count as the outbound...Thanks for any additional feedback!
OK, great. I just wanted to make sure — if you know that you’ll travel frequently enough to use them, and you’ve had good clearance experiences in the past, then it makes sense. Also, upon reflection, I think I understated the benefit for you— I assume the $750 W difference is round-trip, meaning that you’re actually looking at 80 PlusPoints saved rather than just 40. That’s a much better proposition.
Incidentally, what’s the PE fare? If it’s not much more than W, it’s worth considering that instead, for three reasons — (a) it’s 30 PP instead of 40 PP; (b) you get a better position on the upgrade list; and (c) if your upgrade fails, or if there are IRROPS and you have to get re-accommodated on Air New Zealand, or whatever, you’ll at least be able to avoid Economy.
Thursday isn’t a peak travel day, and P9 inventory reflects that. I’d say your clearance chances are pretty good. Saturday may be a little bit tougher but still better than Sunday; again, with P9 inventory and 1K status, I’d say you have a pretty good chance, even from Y.
We have quite a few travelers on the board that head to Australia / New Zealand on a regular basis, so they can chime in, but I had excellent experiences this past year with early clearance to/from Australia in late January. I think the peak is primarily around the holidays, and while I’m sure business travel picks up a bit afterwards, I’ve always thought of AKL as more of a leisure destination.
Good luck.
